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It was obvious that something terrible had overcome the village of Yuriage.
But when the truth was revealed, it still came as an appalling surprise.

People all over the world watched the helicopter film of the evil brown wave
that rolled across here on Friday afternoon, but yesterday morning the
scenes on the edge of the village were unexpectedly normal.

Neat straight roads cut through dry winter paddy fields dotted with small
houses with blue-tiled roofs. Then we spotted a group of people standing on
top of a bank, staring down on a scene concealed from view. We scrambled up

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Tokyo to Sendai: a drive through mud and destruction

March 14 2011

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Shores are submerged in Natori city, Miyagi prefecture

March 14 2011 AP

Shores are submerged in Natori city, Miyagi prefecture

March 14 2011 AP

The landscape in Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture

March 14 2011 Kyodo/Reuters

A ferry is stranded on a building in Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture

March 14 2011 AP

A woman and child wrap up against the cold at a shelter in Tokyo

March 14 2011 AFP

The debris left by the disaster in Natori

March 14 2011 Mike Clark/AFP/Getty Images

This man was rescued after two days clinging to the roof of his wrecked house

March 14 2011 AP

Hiromitsu Shinkawa, 60, was found to be in remarkably good physical condition. His wife was swept away

March 14 2011 Reuters

Eiji Kanno (left) and his wife Matsuko weep after confirmation their daughter, 18, is dead

March 14 2011 EPA

Devastation in Rikuzentakata

March 14 2011 Toru Hanai/Reuters

Flames and smoke rise from a burning petroleum refining plant in Shiogama

March 14 2011 EPA

Flames from a petroleum refining plant next to a power station in Shiogama